Saturday, July 11, 2015

History of Morrill's Corner

Little has been written online about Portland's "Morrill's Corner", at the intersection of Forest Avenue, Allen Avenue, Stevens Avenue, and the Portland & Rochester Railroad. Stevens Avenue was constructed from the separate Horse Railroad, upon which many of the Stevens family had lived.

For whom is Morrill's Corner named? Well, the short answer to that would be "Brothers Rufus and Levi Morrill, who dominated the business landscape of this corner beginning in the early 19th Century."

But for the long answer, I believe it's important to get the history of the Corner and the ancestry of these brothers in order.

First of all, it's important to note that all Morrills of New England descend from two unrelated colonial era English immigrants: John Morrell (early settler of York County, Maine) and Abraham Morrill (early settler of Salisbury Massachusetts).

Stephen Morrill (1737-1816) of North Berwick (great grandson of John Morrell) was the very first of the Morrills to arrive in this part of Falmouth, long before it was given the name Deering, and he was the first of many Morrills to arrive in the area during that period. Nathaniel Deering came from neighboring Kittery, and he was the same age as Stephen. It seems likely that these two early Falmouth businessmen from York County had known each other and possibly inspired each other to move to Falmouth in the 1760's.

The earliest and largest business of The Corner was the Morrill Tannery run by Levi and Rufus Morrill (mentioned in more detail below). Levi tanned cowhides, and Rufus tanned sheepskins.

Tannery operations were quite simple. The process involved dipping sheep or cowhides in a vat of lime, followed by dipping them in a vat of hemlock juice (which hardened the hides into leather). Finally, the hides would be soaked in hen manure and water.

1871 MAP OF MORRILL'S CORNER

As we can tell from the date of the above map, Morrill's Corner has been called this since at least 1871, which was the year that Deering was formed from Saccarappa, with the remainder of Saccarappa to the north being named Westbrook. This map appears to have been created for the genesis of the Town of Deering. Morrill Avenue abuts Forest Avenue just south of Morrill's Corner.

"R. Morrill"'s home (Rufus) can be found pinpointed here on Forest Avenue, just north of Morrill Avenue. On the Horse Railroad to the west (later Stevens Avenue), one can see what appears to be "A.E. Morrill" as well. Further south on Forest Avenue, and just north of Grove Street, one can see "C.E. Morrill Tannery", which is most definitely Charles E. Morrill's.

MORRILL'S CORNER 2014
AMOCO STATION IS NOW SUBWAY SANDWICH SHOP
BRICK LEVI MORRILL HOUSE BEHIND IT
REPLACED BY WHITE WOODEN HOUSE FROM THE 40s

The large colonial brick house above was also known as the "Morrill House". In its later years it was a rooming house run by George and Loretta Beach. It was closed for business in 1932, and it was razed sometime shortly thereafter. As I mentioned above, I believe it may have been the Levi Morrill House (brother to Rufus-more on these brothers below).

Stephen and his two wives had thirteen children, but two were most instrumental in the development of Morrill's Corner, and a third son was instrumental in fathering the Burnham & Morrill empire:

-Rufus Morrill, Sr. (1796-1860), a sheep skin tanner, married both Webb sisters (Mary and Sally), and had nine children at the Corner, most likely in the house above, which was situated next to a toothpick factory for quite some time. Rufus Jr. (1834-1911), a nurse, who was second to youngest, had three children in Westbrook. Rufus Jr. was a railroad engineer , and he kept the house until his death, where lived with his sister Susan and his daughter Sarah (both spinsters). Sarah owned it for many years after Rufus' death (Rufus' Sr. son Edmund had moved to Ellsworth, NH, and his eldest daughter Mary had died in China in 1900 - Edmund later became the Governor of Kansas). Sarah rented the 2nd apartment to a variety of tenants (George A. Thombs, James Sneddon, Albert T. Stults, Truman E. Estabrook) during Sarah's final years there. Around 1938, Sarah ended up at an elderly care private hospital on 554 Stevens Avenue (owned by Mae Ward) and Sarah's tenant, Truman Estabrook, stayed with the house until it was razed in 1941, in favor of an automotive shop. The hospital Sarah stayed at also served as the quarters for the sexton of Evergreen Cemetery next door to it. Sarah died there in the 1940s.

Below is an article concerning Governor Edmund Morrill of Kansas and his visit home to Portland, and this article provides quite a bit of information about the Morrills Corner of the turn of the century.

ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT GOVERNOR MORRILL'S VISIT TO PORTLAND
KANSAS CITY JOURNAL
AUGUST 29, 1895

-Levi Morrill (1802-1868) was a manufacturer. He and his wife Harriet Quimby had two children. According to the above, he built the red brick mansion which was then occupied by Keeley Cure hospital (which might be 1229 Congress-where the Amoco station was-see photo above). Levi tanned hides, while his brother Rufus tanned sheep skins. Levi's son, Charles Edwin Morrill (1841-1891), fought in the Civil War. By 1871, Charles was in charge of the tannery (located a half mile south of Rufus' house), which was then called the "C.E. Morrill Tannery", located on Forest Avenue - just north of Grove Street. According to Morrill Online, in 1871 and 1874 he patented methods of manufacturing shoe bindings (patent no. 121,400 and 134,763), and with Charles Hardy, he patented a method of evening leather in 1874 (patent no. 147770). This tannery could well have been previously run by his father Levi, uncle Rufus, and grandfather Stephen, prior to that. Charles Edwin Morrill's son, Levi Morrill, carried on the family business to some extent. He moved to Boston and worked as a leather merchant. Levi married Anna Hill Lee of DC in April of 1904. On their honeymoon in Atlantic City, Levi suffered from morphine poisoning and died in their room at the St. Charles Hotel.

CORNER OF FOREST AVENUE
AND GROVE STREET
(2009)
FORMER SITE OF MORRILL TANNERY

Below is a tree outline of this historic family (click to enlarge):

I created the above to give you an idea of the Morrill migration from Berwick to the Morrill's Corner area, and it omits many people. This is subject to further update, of course, should I discover the need for it. But as for this writing (July 2015), it gives a relatively accurate picture of the history of this family, for which Morrill's Corner is named.

In 1900, another business started up on The Corner. It was called "Morrill's Coal & Grain Company" on 35 Allen Avenue. The business ran until at least 1940. This business was not owned by anyone in the Morrill family, however, to my knowledge at present.

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1940 CITY DIRECTORY

Today, everyone knows of Morrill's Corner as a busy, if drab looking, commercial and industrial section of Deering just north of Woodfords, and the location of established restaurants Wok Inn and McDonald's, which have been there since I was a youngster in the 70s, as well as the popular Morrill's Corner Pub just south of Wok Inn. A proposed new development, Morrill's Crossing, is hotly debated, highly expensive, and is purported to be a revitalization of the area. Yet, it appears that it will turn what is now a dull blighted area into high density mixed use area resembling every other development of its kind. This was slated to begin construction in 2010, but I'm not sure of the progress of this at the moment (2015), I think it may have stalled, possibly indefinitely. While I'm certain that the developer believes this will be a 'revitalization' of the area, it appears to be a very drastic change - something I'm certain that Mainers wouldn't take too kindly to.

I grew up in Morrills Corner 1950-1970 it was a great neighborhood. It was a neighborhood where you could get anything you wanted within probably 1/2 mile block. It had 2 barbers, 2 drug stores, one was called Deering drug it had a soda fountain shop inside. There was a shoe repair shop, 2. bars, one was called Santo's , 1/2 was a bar, and the other part was a store where you could buy Italian sandwiches. There was also another bar and store combo. It was called Beechers Market the other half was called the Brass Rail where Morrills Corner Pub is now. Along with the other stores, there was a laundrymat and a couple of restaurants. Howard's Variety had counter service and booth service along with Edna's Restaurant. There was also Watkins Department Store, it had everything from clothing, shoes, household goods and gift department. At the corner of Arbor Street and Forest Avenue, where Park Danforths new building sits was the A&P supermarket and where the older Park Danforth sits was Morrill School grades 1-6. Driving through now is sad, all the changes....sure doesn't look like it did when I was growing up? It was a great place to grow up!! It's to bad that today's kids will never know what it's like to grow up in neighborhood where everyone knew each other by name.